You Were Smiling
by AirGirl Phantom
Summary: One-shot. A narrative interpretation of the scene in episode 134 in which Judai finds Johan. Spiritshipping if you squint.


**A/N: **A narrative version of the scene in episode 134 in which Judai finds Johan, with a bit of my own interpretation added.

* * *

When Judai peered inside the third holding cell, he could have sworn his heart stopped.

"Johan!" The name fell from his lips without a thought, a cry born of shock – seeing his best friend chained to the wall, looking like he'd been through hell, it triggered a storm of emotions in Judai. Rage was in there somewhere, but he'd have plenty of time for that later; right now, an overwhelming wave of concern was dominating his thoughts.

He was at Johan's side in an instant, first going for the single shackle that was holding his arm up in a rather painful-looking position. Searching his pockets frantically, he manged to produce some random scrap with which he could pick the lock, but found that his hands were shaking too erratically for him to properly do so.

_Calm down, Judai, _he told himself, closing his eyes and taking a deep breath. Then he went to work on the shackle, a determined focus channeled into his every deliberate movement. In under a minute, he heard the satisfying little _click _of success, gently removed the shackle from Johan's wrist, and then repressed the urge to tear it from the wall and throw the cursed thing across the cell.

To Judai's dismay, once his arm was no longer chained up, Johan slumped to the floor, motionless. "Johan?" he said, a bit panicked. He placed a hand on his friend's chest – yes, he was still breathing – _so wake up, Johan, please wake up. _

Johan's head hung forward, obscuring his face from view, so on an impulse, Judai put a hand to his cheek and turned Johan's face toward him. His skin was frighteningly cool to the touch, which rather increased the ache of fear festering in Judai's stomach. He also noticed that the muscles around Johan's eyes were contracted as if in pain, and felt a surge of protectiveness towards him. As he was never one to go against his impulses, his thumb gently stroked the fragile skin beneath Johan's eye. Thankfully, the warmth of his hand seemed to rouse Johan.

"Johan," he murmured as his friend stirred sluggishly. He let out a sigh of relief as blue-green eyes finally slid open in response to the third repetition of his name – but they weren't the eyes Judai knew, with a vibrant glow of color and the lights of stars dancing behind them. Johan's eyes now were glassy with exhaustion and dim with pain.

"Judai..." he whispered, his eyes sliding shut again. He reached a shaking arm upwards to touch Judai's hand on his cheek.

Judai's heart quickened. He smiled and somehow managed to keep his voice light as he reassured Johan. "Hang in there, okay? I'm gonna get you out of here now."

"They... mistook me for a warrior," Johan told him in a scratchy voice, eyes still shut but thankfully, still awake. "That's why they put me in here."

"Are there any other prisoners here?" Judai asked, taking his hand away from Johan's face to begin helping him up.

"No, the others were moved... somewhere... It's just me left..." he answered, drifting off into a hiss of pain as Judai pulled him up off the ground to stand up.

With Johan's arm around his shoulders, and a steadying hand placed on his waist, Judai slowly began walking forward with him. Johan made many failed attempts at beginning another sentence as they made their way out of the cell – some faded into incoherence, and some didn't even seem to be Japanese – and each broken word he uttered was a needle to Judai's heart.

Because they were so close to each other _(bodies touching comfort giving warmth sharing)_,Judai murmured when he spoke. "Shh, don't talk so much. You're safe now." The words were as much a comfort to himself as they were for Johan. A smile spread slowly over Judai's face, and a feeling of relief began to settle over him – he'd done it! He'd found Johan, and now they could go back and get him some medical care and everything would be okay!

Of course, that's about the point at which everything started to go nightmarishly wrong.

A gang of duel monsters blocked the exit of the fortress, and out from their ranks stepped Zure, the frightful monster who Freed had warned them about. Judai was pretty sure the sound of his pounding heart drowned out the sounds of their wicked laughter.

"As long as there was one warrior here, we knew you'd show up," Zure taunted with a smirk – or at least, it sounded like he was smirking. His grotesque face was a bit hard to read.

As Zure approached, Judai edged around him, unconsciously tightening his hold on Johan. He couldn't fight now, not with Johan this vulnerable. He felt his heart sink – how on earth was he going to get out of this?

And then – there was no time to think, none at all – before he knew it, Zure was swinging his sword and there a lot of painfully bright light and suddenly Johan was screaming – Johan was screaming, _Johan is screaming, why is Johan screaming? _And then all Judai could see, for one eternal moment, was Johan's smiling face, and then –

It was the lack of warmth that hit his senses first, the sudden disappearance of Johan's comforting weight against him; immediately following that was the darkness to which his eyes struggled to adjust.

Somehow, the part of his brain that would usually be trying to process _what the hell just happened_ wasn't quite working at the moment, and for some reason, he was okay with that for right now. He steadfastly held that vision of Johan's face in the forefront of his mind – whether it had been a product of his own imagination, or some sort of weird magic in the air, it was one hell of a lot better than the armful of cold nothing that was currently at his side.

Even with the lack of connections going on in his brain at the moment, Judai was quite aware of the rage bubbling somewhere within, and he also knew that the thing standing before him was an enemy. Through instinct alone, his arm rose before him and he activated his duel disk. Words were... not quite happening yet, so he allowed his action to speak for him.

"You want to duel me?" Zure guffawed.

Judai somehow forced out a single word, a growl from between clenched teeth: "Yeah." And he kept the image of Johan's face held very close and he dueled, and he didn't even once try to put what had just happened into words, because deep inside he knew that if he did, he might very well succumb to utter incoherence.

In fact, he didn't put it into words for quite some time. It was only within the depths of his castle, hidden within layers of armor, that he dared finally put it together.

_Johan is gone._

Of course, he had already killed his heart, so he didn't have to worry about breaking down anymore.


End file.
